Yahoo! to Sponsor Short Film Program at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival

Yahoo! to premiere select short films from the Festival online and launch online audience award

LOS ANGELES, CA — To further demonstrate the company’s commitment to the creative community, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced it is the Official Sponsor of the Short Film Program at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 19-29, 2012 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

As a sponsor, Yahoo! will premiere a select number of short films from the Festival on Yahoo! Movies, a leading online movie destination that reaches 27.5 million users per month. Consumers will also be able to vote for an audience award, which will be presented to the winning filmmaker at the Short Film Awards party taking place during the Festival.

“Yahoo! delivers premium content experiences to both consumers and advertisers,” said Mickie Rosen, senior vice president, Yahoo! Media Network. “Partnering with an iconic institution that promotes talent and creativity not only expands our premium content offerings but also reinforces our commitment to the creative community.”

“The Short Film Program at the Sundance Film Festival has established itself as a launch pad for great storytellers whose work impacts audiences in exciting ways,” said Keri Putnam, executive director of Sundance Institute. “Yahoo!’s sponsorship dramatically extends that impact to millions of users around the world. The Festival and its filmmakers appreciate the support and additional exposure Yahoo! will provide.”

Additional highlights of Yahoo!’s sponsorship will be announced at a later date.

The announcement was made today at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity when Ross Levinsohn, executive vice president of Yahoo! Americas, hosted an on-stage dialog with Robert Redford, founder and president of Sundance Institute, as well as Ben Silverman, founder and CEO of Electus. The discussion focused on the power of storytelling and its role in creating premium content. For more information about Yahoo! at the Cannes Lions festival, visit yadvertisingblog.com or advertising.yahoo.com.

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most visited Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).

Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Follow Yahoo! Movies on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YahooMovies
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/yahoomovies

About Sundance Film Festival
Supported by the nonprofit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water, and Napoleon Dynamite and, through its New Frontier initiative, has brought the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney. www.sundance.org/festival

About Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. www.sundance.org